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Atma-Sphere S-30 MK3


To Atma owners and gurus;

I've just recently jumped on the Atma wagon and I must say that so far this has been the single most eye & ear opening amplifier experience in my entire audio life of almost 28 years.

The S-30mk3 has been residing in my rig for close to 4 months now and is still breaking in, but should be almost done anytime soon.

I do however complain of an un-natural tonality in general that comes and goes during the break-in period and which was also very clear from the beginning. This is also accompanied by a certain 'hardness'..much like looking directly into sunlight as opposed to looking through a pair of poloroids..This issue is really bugging me and was wondering if it's part of the break-in process of Atmasphere amps in general, as I have never experienced it with other amps, tube or SS..

This aside, the amp seems to be taking forever to break-in..!!! But, it certainly looks to be my holy grail in amplification.

Along the way, I replaced the stock Chinese 6SN7's with EH's and now settled on Tung-Sol's. The latter being the best sounding of the lot. I do wanna stick to current production tubes as much as possible. Don't wanna go on the NOS merry-go-round..:-)

The S-30 is driving a pair of Tannoy Edinburgh's, from the Tannoy Prestige Series, to wonderful effect and the sound is heavenly! Preamp is a BAT VK-3iX Special Edition and is also a very good sonic match with the S-30..

Appreciate any input and of course any advice from the Atmasphere gurus and lovers here..!

TIA

AudioGrails
128x128audiograils
maril555
619 posts
 
Ralph,
Very informative, as always.
When you said:
"All our products are built with a custom copper wire that is as pure as anything else out there- by rights, we could be cable company ",
I wonder, if you have found silver-plated copper wire to sound different (read glare), than pure copper. That has been my personal experience.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
I don't what Ralph thinks, but Ken Stevens of CAT avoided silver for just that reason.
audiograils's avatar
audiograils OP
23 posts
 
Thanks very much for your time and patience, very much appreciated. The 'glare', 'hardness', 'tonality issue'
were very prominant during the first 45 days or so but they slowly diminished along the way. Not much left now, only every other day or so and not so prominant as before. I'm almost positive it's a break-in issue somehow, as it's not a constant occurance and when it's there it's with any volume level. I was a bit worried it might be the speaker/amp interface somehow. The amp does take a long time than usual to sonically bloom and mature, it seems.

I also noticed that the all the tubes (6AS7) need to bias correctly as earlier on I had 1 or 2 that were running fine but not optimumly responding to the bias meter and gradually discovered that they contributed to some glare and hardness too. Once replaced, the sound was ok again.

Indeed, the Atmasphere 'sound' is totally unlike other tube amps, SE or PP, that I've experienced and , like Audiofeil mentionned above, needs some getting used to for a first time user. A very good 'sound' nonetheless..:-)

Ralph, as always, thanks very much for your patience and perseverance, your input in this thread and in private emails. If the S-30 is anything to go by, I wonder what the bigger brothers sound like !!! Great Job and God Bless.

AG
trcnetmsncom
431 posts
 
Hello,

In response to Atmasphere's post....

I just wanted to point out that I heard the A-S MA-2 amps with both analog and digital front ends, both of which are considered by the audiophile community to be at the very top of their game.

It was the same sonic fingerprint I heard to various degrees in all 3 systems (please refer to Atma-Sphere MA-1 thread) regardless of the source . I feel confident with my opinion that the sound was due to either the amp speaker interaction, or just my general take on the sound of the A-S amp.

"I suggest your ears were acclimating to the sonics and different presentation of an OTL amplifier."

If you believe this statement, which very well could be true, then you would have to conclude the A-S amps do have their own sonic signature.

Sincerely and with all due respect, on a public forum such as this, I feel that (IMHO) manufactures are better off sticking to posting only factual information about their equipment and refrain from posting any subjective opinions or comments as they will be biased.

Best,
Tom
saki70
907 posts
 
"The S-30 is a special case in that it makes more power at higher impedances, this causes some modern speaker crossovers to not work in the way that the speaker designer intended if they are used to Voltage Paradigm rules!"

The 'Voltage Paradigm' should not be passed over lightly !
In an earlier thread titled "mo' better bass:any substitute for watts" this idea was investigated . While that particular thread was addressing bass , maybe Atmaspere could explain how it affects the upper end of the spectrum here .

I know that Atmasphere does not like the term 'synergy' but that probably is what is being discussed here . Some components work well together and some don't !
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